In 1967, L. Ron Hubbard raised a private navy, appointed himself Commodore, donned a dashing uniform of his own design and set forth on an extraordinary odyssey, leading a fleet of ships across the oceans variously pursued by the CIA, the FBI, the international press and a miscellany of suspicious government and maritime agencies.

Former Scientologist and Sea Org member of 16 years, Jesse Prince was a senior executive in the Religious
Technology Center, Scientology's top management and trademark organization.
Jesse Prince left the Sea Org in 1992 and he now actively assists former and current Scientologists to
recover from their experiences in Scientology. In his first affidavit Jesse
Prince writes:

The Sea Organization is the actual nexus that controls the scientology empire. Sea Organization personnel are authorized to take over and control scientology organizations and to demote personnel, move bank accounts and run the corporation as if the SO personnel were employees or representatives of that corporation but they are not.

The Deputy Inspector Generals who head the IG Network which locates and handles infiltration and suppression in Scientology

While busy "researching" OT3 Hubbard
was kicked out of Rhodesia in 1967 and flew to Las Palmas. In a letter
to his third wife Mary Sue he writes "I'm drinking lots of rum
and popping pinks and greys." People who cared for him at the time say they were astonished that he was
existing "almost totally on a diet of drugs" and obsessed
with removing his body-thetans (BTs). BTs are confused spirits
of space aliens killed on earth 75 million years ago. They cling to human bodies
and can only be exorcised by applying Scientology.

Hubbard appointed a special crew on the ship the
Enchanter and called it the Sea Project. The British government started an investigation
into Hubbard's activities and he needed a plan to escape the authorities. Lots of money was at
this point transferred to Hubbard from the Church of Scientology.
The Sea Project became the Sea Organisation (today also known as Sea Org
or just SO). While on Las Palmas Hubbard finished off OT3 and called
it "the Wall of Fire". Hubbard claimed: "The material involved in this sector
is so vicious that it is carefully arranged to kill anyone if
he discovers the exact truth of it...I am very sure that
I was the first one that ever did live through any attempt to
attain that material."

FSO Sea Org flag parade in 1996

Sea Org members got exited about the OT3 discovery as the news spread.
Hubbard was going to use the Mothership to escape from Earth.
The ship was protected by atomic warheads. It awaited the return
of a great leader, and there were rumors about a "Space Org."
Soon after, Hubbard moved with his top Aides
to the Royal Scotman, which became the Flagship of the Sea Org
fleet. Scientologists called it simply "Flag".

In the beginning Sea Org crew had a six month contract but this
was changed to a billion years. A contract that is still in use today.
Crew were given high ranks on the ship, even though most were completely
unskilled in operating a ship at sea. They wore pseudo-naval uniforms,
a tradition upheld with glamour today as the pictures on this page
document.

Scientology parade in Los Angeles in 1998

The Advanced Orgs (AOs) were the only organisation in the cult to deliver
the Operating Thetan levels and from the beginning AOs were supposed to
be run by Sea Org members only.

In 1968 Ethics was introduced in Sea Org. Crew were put into a chain-locker
as punishment. A chain-locker is "a dark hole where the anchor
chains are stored; cold, wet and rats," to quote one ex-Sea
Org officer. A crew member that was put on ethics could spend up to two
weeks in the tiny hole. Former Scientologists who served as crew
together with Hubbard in the early years remember a five years old
deaf and mute child being locked up in the chain-locker. Hubbard
said she was not to leave the chain locker until she completed the
formula by writing her name. Another witness claims that a three-year-old
was once put in the locker.

Hubbard published the purpose of the Class VIII course: "It's
up to the Auditor to become UNCOMPROMISINGLY STANDARD... an
uncompromising zealot for Standard Tech." Sea Org "Missions"
were dispatched to all corners of the world to bully
Org staffs into higher production. Hubbard pronounced that such
"Missions" had "unlimited Ethics powers."

In the Advanced Orgs in Edinburgh and Los Angeles, staff were
ordered to wear all-white uniforms, with silver boots, to mimic
the Galactic Patrol of seventy-five million years before. According
to Hubbard's Flag Order 652, mankind would accept regulation
from that group which had last betrayed it. So the Sea Org were
to ape the instigators of the OT3 incident. By the same token,
all the book covers were revised to show scenes from the supposedly
lethal incident.

"Captain" Bill Robertson, who introduced the uniforms to both
Edinburgh and Los Angeles, also ordered a nightwatch in Los
Angeles. The crew assembled on the roof every night to watch
for the spaceships of Hubbard's enemies.

The top of Scientology at their new year event in 1987. From the left: Captain Ray Mithoff, Captain Greg Wilhere, Captain Marc yager, Captain David Miscavige, Commander Norman Starkey, Captain Guillaume Leserve and Captain Mark Ingber

Soon afterwards, an Inquiry started in South Africa. Hubbard
turned his back on the "wog" world, and concentrated on introducing
a new form of Dianetics, and integrating it into the Scientology
"Bridge." He issued a bizarre order to the Sea Org, called "Zones
of Action," which outlined his plans. Scientology was going
to take over those areas controlled by Smersh (the fictitious evil organization fought by the
equally fictitious James Bond), rake in enormous amounts
of cash, clean up psychotherapy, infiltrate and reorganize every
minority group, and befriend the worst enemies of the Western nations.
Hubbard's stated intention was to undermine a supposed Fascist
conspiracy to rule the world.

Hubbard had three vessels, Apollo (formly known as the Scotsman), Athena and yacht Diana, and during the last months of 1968 all three joined up in
Corfu, Greece. The ships were berthed in
Corfu when people were first being tossed into the harbor. Hubbard was
just really rabid and yelling and screaming a lot. For some time

Student being thrown overboard for gross "out tech"

throwing violators of Hubbard's rules over the side
of the ship ("overboarding" them) became a Sea Org tradition. Usually
they were thrown off the tween (second) deck, but there were a
couple of occasions when they went off the promenade deck (some 25
feet above the water). There were rules written by Hubbard in a "Flag Order" which
listed orders of severity of overboarding, such as: from which deck,
should the person be blindfolded, and should his hands or feet be
tied.

At first the relationship with the military junta in Greece went
well, but when Hubbard published an article about democracy in a
Greek newspaper he was ordered out in March 1969. It would appear that
Hubbard also, in fact, had little appreciation for the idea of democracy.
He had written in 1965 "And I don't see that popular measures,
self-abnegation and democracy have done anything for Man but push him
further into the mud... democracy has given us inflation and income tax."
He had already been kicked out of Hull in England, and when they tried to
pull into Gibraltar they were denied entry there, and then later there was
also some mess in Spain.

So Hubbard decided to disconnect from land and go out
and float for as long as the emergency stores would last and just get the
scene together. They did that for about two months off the coast of
Morocco. During this "disconnection cruise" Hubbard had a heart attack on the bridge.

Susan Meister was introduced to Scientology in San Francisco
in the autumn of 1970. By November, she was working at the San
Francisco Org. She was an eager convert, and tried to persuade
her parents to become Scientologists. She wanted to be close
to the "Founder," and contribute to "Clearing the Planet," so
in February 1971 she joined the Sea Org. By the end of the month
she was aboard the "Flagship" Apollo. Her stay there was brief
and tragic. On May 8, she wrote to her mother:

Mother,
Do you recall talking to me about WW III - and where it would
start if it were to start - father and most everyone else maintained
that it would start in either China or Russia vs. U.S. and you
said - oh no - it would originate in Germany - that the Nazis hadn't
given up yet - ? Well babe, you were right - there is a new Nazi
resurgence taking place in Germany - so now it's a race between
the good guys in the white hats (Scientologists) [sic] and the
Leipzig death camp (Nazis) [sic] the bad guys in the black hats - we'll
win of course - but the game is exciting. Truth is stranger than
fiction. As Alice [in Wonderland] says "Things get curiouser
and curiouser!" Get into Scientology now. It's fantastic.
Love, Susan

Four days later, Susan Meister wrote this letter:

Dear Family,

Click to enlarge Susan Meister's letter to her family

I just had a session an auditing session
I feel great! Great GREAT!
and my life is EXPANDING
EXPANDING
and it's All Hurry Up: Hurry, Hurry
SCIENTOLOGY
Be a friend to yourselves
Get into this stuff Now -
It's more precious than gold
it's the best thing that's
_ever_ever_ever_ever_ come
along. Love, Susan

Her last letter to her parents from the Apollo was dated June
1971. In it she thanked them for a birthday card, and a variety
of gifts, including a new dress. She continued, showing the
effect upon a young and impressionable mind Hubbard's obsession
with the "great conspiracy" against him:

I can't tell you exactly where we are. We have enemies who are
profiting from peoples' ignorance and lack of self-determinism
and do not wish to see us succeed in restoring freedom and
self-determinism to this planet's people. If these people were
to find out where we are located - they would attempt to destroy
us. Therefore, we are not allowed to say where this ship is located.

She once more urged her mother to read Hubbard's books, and take
Scientology courses. Ten days after writing the letter, Susan
was dead.

LIFE IN SO

An Orders of the Day mentioning Susan Meister's boyfriend Amos Jessup. Dated two months after her death.

Her father travelled to Morocco to see his daughter and bring her
home for the funeral. But the body had curiously disappeared from the morgue.
The local police showed him pictures of his daughter allegedly
having shot herself onboard Apollo. It was a mystery how Susan could possibly
have shoot herself in the center of her forehead with the long barreled
revolver. She would have had to hold it with both hands at arms
length. There were no powder burns on her forehead, which certainly
would have been the case if the gun was against her forehead
as it would have to be to shoot herself as the photograph appeared.

Hubbard, who was onboard Apollo at the time, refused to meet with
Susan's father, but upon departure back to America George Meister received a
strange offer for settlement from the Apollo. When he refused he was
threatened by strange men coming up to him at the airport saying
"We are watching you and so are the CIA and the FBI."

The body was eventually found and returned to the family, but before
it arrived the local Health Authority, in Colorado, received an
anonymous letter claiming there has been a Cholera epidemic in Morocco
and this might be the cause of Susan Meister's death. It looked like a desperate attempt
to stop further investigation into the cause of death.

The Apollo crew went on establishing a land base, called
the Tours Reception Center, in Morocco in 1971. They were trying
to get into the king's favor, and started training government
officials, including Moroccan Intelligence agents, in Scientology
techniques. Officials were put on the E-meter and Security-Checked
by French-speaking Sea Org members. From his villa in Morocco, in March 1972, the Commodore explained
his twelve point "Governing Policy" for finance. Points A and
J were the same: "MAKE MONEY." Point K was "MAKE MORE MONEY."
And the last point, L, was "MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS
TO MAKE MONEY." At last, an honest admission of this major plank
of Hubbard's philosophy.

Inspector General Representatives

The Apollo sailed from Morocco to Portugal in October, for repairs.
Hubbard and a contingent of Sea Org members stayed behind. Morocco
was as close as Hubbard ever came to having the ear of a government,
but relations broke down. In the Scientology world, there is
a rumor that the upset had something to do with Moroccan Intelligence,
which does lend a certain mystique. A secret Guardian's Office
investigation revealed a more prosaic error, however. In 1971,
Hubbard had reintroduced Heavy Ethics, and Scientologists continued
to use the Ethics Conditions. For being persistently late for
their Scientology courses, members of the Moroccan Post Office
were assigned a condition of "Treason." To the Moroccans, "Treason,"
no matter how much it was word-cleared, meant only one thing:
execution. The Post Office officials set themselves against
the Scientologists, and won. As a grim footnote, the Moroccan
official who had negotiated with the Scientologists was later
executed for treason. The contacts with Intelligence had actually
been with a faction which was to fail in an attempted coup d'etat.
The panic, starting from Hubbard's typically exaggerated use
of a simple word, ended with an order for the Scientologists
to quit Morocco, in December 1972. Hubbard himself was given
only twenty-four hours. He flew to Lisbon, and then secretly
on to New York.

In November 1973, the Apollo was in Tenerife. Hubbard went for a
joyride into the hills on one of his motorbikes. The bike skidded
on a hairpin bend, hurling the Commodore onto the gravel. He
was badly hurt, but somehow managed to walk back to the ship.
He refused a doctor, and his medical orderly, Jim Dincaici,
was surprised at his demands for painkillers. Hubbard turned
on him, and said "You're trying to kill me." Kima Douglas took
Dincalci's place. She thinks Hubbard had broken an arm and three
ribs, but could not get close enough to find out. With Hubbard
strapped into his chair, the Apollo put to sea, encountering
a Force 5 gale. The Commodore screamed in agony, and the screaming
did not stop for six weeks.

Sea Org with swords in 1998

In Douglas' words: "He was revolting to be with - a sick, crotchety,
pissed-off old man, extremely antagonistic to everything and
everyone. His wife was often in tears and he'd scream at her
at the top of his lungs, `Get out of here!' Nothing was right.
He'd throw his food across the room with his good arm; I'd often
see plates splat against the bulkhead... He absolutely refused
to see another doctor. He said they were all fools and would
only make him worse. The truth was that he was terrified of doctors
and that's why everyone had to be put through such hell."

While on the mend, Hubbard introduced his latest innovation
in Ethics Technology: the "Rehabilitation Project Force" (RPF). This
became Scientology's equivalent to imprisonment, with more than
a tinge of the Chinese Ideological Re-education Center. In theory
the RPF deals with Sea Org members who consistently fail to
make good. They are put on physical labor, and spend several hours each day confessing their overts
(transgressions), and revealing their Evil Purposes.

Life in the Sea Org was already fairly gruelling, but the
Rehabilitation Project Force went several steps further. Gerry Armstrong, who
spent over two years on the RPF, has given this description:

It was essentially a prison to which crew who were considered
nonproducers, security risks, or just wanted to leave the Sea
Org, were assigned. Hubbard's RPF policies established the
conditions.
RPF members were segregated and not allowed to communicate to
anyone else. They had their own spaces and were not allowed
in normal crew areas of the ship. They ate after normal crew
had eaten, and only whatever was left over from the crew meal.
Their berthing was the worst on board, in a roach-infested,
filthy and unventilated cargo hold. They wore black boilersuits,
even in the hottest weather. They were required to run everywhere.
Discipline was harsh and bizarre, with running laps of the ship
assigned for the slightest infraction like failing to address
a senior with "Sir." Work was hard and the schedule rigid with
seven hours sleep time from lights out to lights on, short meal
breaks, no liberties and no free time...
When one young woman ordered into the RPF took the assignment
too lightly, Hubbard created the RPF's RPF and assigned her
to it, an even more degrading experience, cut off even from
the RPF, kept under guard, forced to clean the ship's bilges,
and allowed even less sleep.

Flag Class XII auditors

Others verify Armstrong's account. The RPF rapidly swelled to
include anyone who had incurred Hubbard's disfavor. Soon about
150 people, almost a third of the Apollo's complement, were
being "rehabilitated". This careful imitation of techniques long-used
by the military to obtain unquestioning obedience and immediate
compliance to orders, or more simply to break men's spirits,
was all part of a ritual of humiliation for the Sea Org member.

By creating the Sea Org, and taking to the international waters, Hubbard
had successfully put himself beyond the law. Officially he never again went
ashore but died in USA in
1986 where he had lived in hiding for several years.